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Movember and prostate cancer treatment in Pardubice

12. 12. 2015

Movember is the name of a charity that tries to persuade men to grow moustaches every November with an awareness campaign to help turn the spotlight on men's health. Men suffering from prostate or testicular cancer should receive the treatment and care they desperately need to heal physically and mentally. The name Movember is a combination of two English words - mustache and November. Let's get moving! Any physical activity counts. Grab your friends, colleagues or family members and get fit or do any other physical activity, big or small, every activity counts. The advantage is that even women can join in.


External beam radiotherapy for prostate cancer has moved forward at the turn of this millennium. New radiation methods have emerged. Combinations of radiation with hormone therapy have improved treatment. Radiotherapy planning using computed tomography has triggered the development of modern techniques - intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) and image guided radiotherapy (IGRT) has taken us to an even higher level of quality. Advanced forms of radiotherapy spare healthy tissue around the prostate.
Modern imaging methods have brought significant advances. We routinely take advantage of magnetic resonance imaging for prostate contouring. In cooperation with the General University Hospital in Prague, we examine some patients using PET/CT - a so-called hybrid imaging method that combines computed tomography (CT) with positron emission tomography (PET) - with choline.
Image-guided radiotherapy is an irradiation technique that uses verification of the patient's position before or during irradiation, so that adjustments can be made during each fraction of radiotherapy to correct for inaccuracies in the settings. It is not only in the irradiation of prostate cancer that we use a computed tomography scanner as part of this technique. We therefore irradiate more accurately with this method. We can thus reduce the safety margin around the prostate. We irradiate a smaller target volume and thus protect the healthy tissues around it.

The advantage of intensity-modulated rotational radiotherapy is a shorter irradiation time with comparable or better dose distribution compared to the conventional IMRT technique. The Multiscan Cancer Centre in Pardubice, which is part of the Comprehensive Cancer Centre of the Pardubice Region, has been using this technique (RapidArc) since 2010.
We started performing IMRT in 2003 as the second workplace in the Czech Republic. Since then, more than 1,500 men with prostate cancer have been irradiated in Pardubice with this modern treatment method. Our experience was presented especially by doc. MUDr. J. Vaňásek, CSc., prof. MUDr. K. Odrážka, Ph.D. and doc. MUDr. M. Doležel, Ph.D. at a number of congresses and published in our and foreign professional press.

Currently, a new linear accelerator TrueBeam from the American company Varian is being installed, which is designed from the ground up to be able to irradiate targets with high speed and accuracy. This new type of irradiator will further reduce irradiation times, allowing more patients to be irradiated. This takes our cancer centre to the next level.